Damage of National Standards outweigh benefits

National Standards in schools have had several
beneficial outcomes but those are outweighed by the damage
being done.

That’s the view of University of Waikato
Professor Martin Thrupp, who has just released the third and
final RAINS (Research, Analysis and Insight into National
Standards) report at the annual meeting of the New Zealand
Association for Research in Education being held at Otago
University.

The three-year study, commissioned by the New
Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa (NZEI), has
investigated how primary and intermediate school Boards of
Trustees, leadership teams and teachers are responding to
National Standards in everyday practice and how this
response is affecting student learning.

Professor Thrupp,
from the Faculty of Education, says National Standards have
improved teacher understanding of curriculum levels,
increased the motivation of some teachers and children and
produced some improved targeting of children’s learning
needs.

However, he says National Standards are using up
too much of teachers precious time and creating tensions
amongst them. It has also led to a narrowing of the
curriculum and the adverse labelling and positioning of
children, he says.

While the publication of National
Standards data was always contentious, Professor Thrupp says
the potential for National Standards to have “a
detrimental impact on day-to-day processes and relationships
in and around schools” needs to be taken more
seriously.

He says schools are increasingly focussing on
literacy and numeracy to the detriment of other subjects
such as science or art, narrowing the learning experience
for children.

“The Government thought we could have it
all but it’s not working out that way.”

Professor
Thrupp’s report recommends abandoning the “crude”
four-point National Standards scale (‘above’, ‘at’,
‘below’ and ‘well below’) in favour of reporting
which curriculum level a child has reached. Teacher should
be allowed to discuss age-related expectations of children
and any other matters that parents want to discuss, but only
in ways that are mindful of the potential for harm such as
lowered expectations. Schools should be able to determine
student achievement against curriculum levels while
informing their decisions through high quality professional
development.

The nationwide collection and public
reporting of primary achievement data should also be
abandoned and while ERO reviews should continue, there
should be a different policy informing review teams
practices.

Professor Thrupp says adopting the
recommendations would not be “throwing the baby out with
the bathwater” because schools would still work to
curriculum levels as they do now.

“There are less
harmful ways for schools to be accountable to parents and
the
community”.

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